Aaaargh. I was a bit off after a root canal treatment on Friday and I did not have the energy to drop off the kids lunches at the afterschool care. Poor things, they will have to tough it out with sandwiches.😂 i baked a batch of cookies and muffins to compensate but it won't be easy for them. We pick them up at 6, so it is long day, they are famished by then.

Menu plan for this week planned around veggies from the Bountiful Basket picked up on Friday:

S - Brats with homemade rolls and sauerkraut, sauteed cherry tomatoes and asparagus (have no-knead bread rising, will use half for rolls for tonight, the other half for a small loaf for tomorrow)M - Split pea soup and bread (already did all the chopping and have it in a container in the fridge, just add stock and water in the morning)T - Chicken and roasted veggies (about to go prep the veggies for this)W - Miso tofu, noodles, zucchini (will drain and dice tofu and prep marinade today)R - Salmon, roasted cabbage & potatoes (easy meal, I have the salmon seasoned and portioned in the freezer, will cook sous vide from frozen)F - Leftovers

I meal plan very loosely, because I have a hard time predicting what will result in enough leftovers for another meal and what will be devoured in one go. We have a very picky 5 year old, so he eats cold cuts, pickles, cheese, pretzels, and buttered pasta. In whatever configuration I throw together.

This week for the adults (in no particular order)

~Pork chops with asparagus and salad. Peach cobbler for dessert. (Tonight since the pork chops need used up and the cobblers already made.)

Plan is to eat the Wraps and pasta first since they are not freezer friendly. Lasagna and Stew is in the freezer, and breakfast sandwiches are split half and half. We still have a ton of stuff left from round 1 of mega cooking 2 weeks ago, and our freezer is now refilled from this weeks activities. I think we may need to look into getting a small deep freezer!

This is a busy/stressful week at work, so I went with things that were on the more mindless side.

Sunday: bulked-up Southwest protein blend (frozen bag, plus peppers/celery/onion, chipotle peppers, a diced potato, a can of black beans, and some salsa)Monday: pasta w/ chicken sausage, mushrooms, broccoli, and jarred pasta sauceTuesday: out w/ friendsWeds: crockpot freezer chicken chili (need to pull it out to defrost overnight), plus a sweet potatoThursday: mashed potatoes, the last two chicken sausages, and a veggie side (probably spinach?)Friday: stare at the fridge and see what looks good/leftoversSaturday: vacation!!

Breakfasts - freezer burritos with egg, cheese, and roasted potatoes. Sometimes with black beans or sausage. I make a giant batch about twice a month. I'm the only one that eats them though. My girls prefer cereal or toast in the morning and my husband eats oatmeal at the office.

I made a double batch of them again this weekend for a brunch, this time 12 with Ham, Egg and cheese, and the other 12 with Ham egg spinach and cheese. I was able to make 24 breakfast sandwiches in about 30 minutes...fantastic time rate of return! Other weekends I have done bacon, egg, spinach and cheese. Little more time because you have to cook the bacon. May experiment with breakfast sausages in the future.

Joining. I'm very impressed with the level of organization here. Our family is in transition, with MIL having moved to an assisted living arrangement, and kids in college or heading there. Instead of being able to eat a whole ham within a week, we are often cooking for just two people.

We are also moving gradually towards vegetarian and vegan meals. We are currently targeting 3 vegan dinners per week, plus vegan before 6 for DW, no farm raised seafood, and only cage free eggs. I tried vegan butter and cream cheese recently, and they seem fine. I also checked out a vegan cheese making book from the library, which seems like a possibly very mustachian way to go vegan.

We often try to cook vegan meals on Sunday and Monday, so that DW can pack vegan leftovers for lunch. I work at home, so I have flexibility, and don't get first claim on leftovers. Lately, I've been lacking in leftovers, so I've been buying cold cuts and having a wrap with spinach, cold cuts, and jalapenos.

I was planning to buy beef brisket on sale, but it was ~$8/lb., while the corned beef brisket was on sale for $1.60/lb. Instead, I bought a pork shoulder for $1.49/lb., and we will switch it up. All the typical St. Patrick's Day ingredients were on sale, so that's why we are having cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. If we have leftover pulled pork, I'll freeze it on a cookie sheet to make carnitas in a week or two.

I'm so pumped that we haven't wasted a ton of food since moving into our new house. A few rotten strawberries here and there (from buying cheap strawberries), but overall we are clearing out our fridge every Friday!

I've got some busy evenings this week, and failed at actually planning yesterday, so here's me attempting to think through what's in the fridge:

Sunday - Chicken tortellini w/ broccoli and marinara (made 3 servings leftovers)Monday - Stirfry w/ cabbage and asparagus (I'm not thrilled with this idea - will probably google "cabbage and asparagus" and see if I can find something else - or if you all have any ideas??)Tuesday - need something super quick before a 7pm meeting - maybe a crockpot dinner from the freezer?Wednesday - I'm busy, DH will eat leftoversThursday - need something super quick after a 6pm meeting - DH might make something from the freezer (pizza or bag of pasta) and I'll eat it when I get home? Friday - what's left in the crisper drawer??

Over on the Reduce Your Grocery Spend thread, I offered some meal planning help. In doing so I created a sample meal plan for mega cooking. Figured I would also share here if anyone is looking for ideas!!

Mega cooking round 4 (ish)...Last weekend I made 24 servings of gnocchi our of 10 lbs of potatos. In doing so I ended up with a ton of leftover potato skins and have been eating potato skins in various forms.

I am loving my Google Drive system - this is the longest I've stuck with meal planning. I use a table template and add in what I expect to be doing each day - that way I can easily readjust the meal if my plans change (e.g. grab the easier meal for a busier night). Also, I put my shopping list at the bottom of the table, so I can pull it up on my phone at the grocery store (my breakfasts and lunches are in the table too), and looking at the menu plan, it's easy to see how to modify based on sales when I'm shopping. I can also hyperlink to a recipe right in the table if I'm cooking something new. It's really freeing up some mental space for me during the week.

* From intentionally misheard Daft Punk lyrics: https://youtu.be/h5EofwRzit0?t=67. This is a meal that evolved as using up whatever meat, vegetables, cheese, and sour cream we have with Mexican flavor, possibly with tortillas, taco shells, or tortilla chips.

My brain and my calendar were thoroughly disconnected this weekend, as I bought a full load of groceries despite the fact that I have 1.5 evenings to actually make dinner this week. So tonight will be pasta with *all the vegetables!*

Question for the crowd - can I crockpot something on Wednesday with cauliflower, potatoes, and sweet potatoes (or some combo thereof)?

If chickpeas and lentils aren't your thing, throw in some chicken thighs, cauliflower, sweet potato and curry flavours for curry/stew type thing. You could even throw some rice or quinoa right into the slowcooker for a one pot meal.

If chickpeas and lentils aren't your thing, throw in some chicken thighs, cauliflower, sweet potato and curry flavours for curry/stew type thing. You could even throw some rice or quinoa right into the slowcooker for a one pot meal.

Potatoes should keep until you have time to cook with them, but no reason why you couldn't add them to the curry mixture!

Thanks, kay! The soup actually looks really intriguing. We just did red lentils and sweet potato curry Saturday, so I don't think DH would be super excited to do that again 4 days later, but it's a great idea. :)

My brain and my calendar were thoroughly disconnected this weekend, as I bought a full load of groceries despite the fact that I have 1.5 evenings to actually make dinner this week. So tonight will be pasta with *all the vegetables!*

Question for the crowd - can I crockpot something on Wednesday with cauliflower, potatoes, and sweet potatoes (or some combo thereof)?

For my meal plan this week, there is no plan. I'll be by myself the rest of the week, and have enough ingredients on hand to figure something out. We had a huge salad/slaw last night, so that will last me a couple of days. DW is thinking about a Jenny Craig-style regimen, with my help, so this plan may get more difficult and detailed soon.

I am trying to do as low-spend as I can manage for the rest of the month, so I’m eating out of my fridge and pantry which are already a bit limited because of my recent move. I have plenty of ground beef and chicken, so I’m probably just going to pick up a few outlier ingredients for the rest of the month (mayo, sour cream, etc.).

My brain and my calendar were thoroughly disconnected this weekend, as I bought a full load of groceries despite the fact that I have 1.5 evenings to actually make dinner this week. So tonight will be pasta with *all the vegetables!*

Question for the crowd - can I crockpot something on Wednesday with cauliflower, potatoes, and sweet potatoes (or some combo thereof)?

For my meal plan this week, there is no plan. I'll be by myself the rest of the week, and have enough ingredients on hand to figure something out. We had a huge salad/slaw last night, so that will last me a couple of days. DW is thinking about a Jenny Craig-style regimen, with my help, so this plan may get more difficult and detailed soon.

Aloo gobi is delicious! I make it with some regularity. We ended up just roasting a big tray of cauliflower, sweet potato, and potato, and had that with a couple chicken sausages (DH got it in the oven while I was commuting home). I appreciate all the ideas!

This week was another only half-planned one:Sunday: veggie stirfryMonday: shepherd's pie w/ ground chicken and a ton of veggiesTuesday: chicken cheesesteak from the freezer/crockpot (not great - pepper strips don't stand up that well to 8 hours of cooking), plus some shredded kale saladWednesday: ???? maybe pasta w/ leftover chicken and peppers from last night, plus more saladThursday: I'm out for a work thing, leftovers for the husbandFriday: ????Saturday: game night, other people feed us. :)

Haven't had to do mega cooking in a while, eating down our stash and making more evening meals/using up fridge stuff.

Past couple of weeks things we have made: - Homemade Pizza and Pizza "sandwiches" - leftover pizza stuff on English muffins (great for lunches) - Meat Pie and Salad- Homemade Donairs and Salad- Rotisserie chicken with salad and potato wedges- I was craving take out and got this instead, should have just caved and got take out or made it myself. It was not worth the price :'(. - Lasagna Soup (so easy and so good!!)